Star Trek: Enterprise

“Bound”

1 star.

Air date: 4/15/2005
Written by Manny Coto
Directed by Allan Kroeker

Unless a new policy has been instated, I don't believe Starfleet condones slavery." — Low-key T'Pol sarcasm

Review Text

In brief: Un-good. Very, very un-good.

Manny Coto, a self-confessed Trek geek, has written what I'm sure he thinks is a "fun" homage to the Trek days of yesteryear. What he fails to recognize, however, is that this is not an episode of television that deserves to see the light of day in 2005. It's too dumb, too obvious, too boring, and too rooted in gender stereotypes. If this is an homage, it's an homage to all the things that I, for one, hoped Trek had grown out of in the past four decades.

Maybe this is a sly commentary/satire on the sexism that frequently pervaded TOS. On the other hand, maybe it's just bad, boring, juvenile TV that exploits those qualities rather than lampooning them.

The plot. Blah, blah, blah — do you even care? Because the episode certainly does not. Perfunctory barely beings to describe it. Anyone could've written this by-the-numbers storyline. The captain of an Orion ship, Harrad-Sar (William Lucking) offers a proposal to Archer as an olive branch in establishing good relations between Starfleet and the Orion Syndicate. Whether Starfleet would even entertain the idea of negotiating with openly self-described criminal slavers is an interesting question that the episode doesn't bother asking, but never mind. Harrad-Sar pitches his proposal during a Sexy Dance Number by three scantily clad Orion slave girls (Cyia Batten, Crystal Allen, Menina Fortunato). The dancing leaves Archer and his away team positively entranced. Hypnotized. Galvanized. Stupefied. Moronized. Gee, y'think these girls have a special power over men that goes beyond simply their visual sex appeal? If not, would we even have a plot here? Duh.

Harrad-Sar gives Archer the location of a planet allegedly perfect for a lucrative, joint mining operation. Archer accepts the deal. T'Pol futilely offers words of caution, but Archer has already decided, and we're on our way. Is this a trap? Was Enterprise canceled exactly when the dailies of this episode started coming in? Okay, I made that last part up.

Meanwhile, Lt. Cmdr. Kelby (Derek Magyar) has a beef with Tucker because Tucker hasn't returned to the Columbia and Kelby thinks his promotion to chief engineer is going to be voided. Judging by the way the episode plays out, I'd say his fears are pretty justified. Oh, well — maybe Kelby can be the chief engineer on the Columbia. Sort of a consolation prize for both Kelby and Captain Hernandez. Trip's transfer off the Enterprise in "The Aenar" was interesting specifically because it dealt believably with personnel issues on board a starship. The situation with Kelby here flies in the face of believable staffing issues, but we naturally must have our guy Trip back where he belongs.

Oh, wait, we were talking about "Bound." Sorry. So Harrad-Sar gives Archer the three slave girls as a gift, leading to many scenes where they slink and slither around the ship and cause distractions and disturbances because none of the men can think straight. These women, they DRIVE MEN WILD. And they drive the other women on the ship to have headaches, which is to say, one woman. Hoshi complains to Phlox while T'Pol is unaffected, being the logical Vulcan that she is. Are there even any other women on the ship?

Much of the episode is your typical Sci-Fi Sexuality Lite, which is to say neutered faux sexuality played for nervous tee-hee laughs and aimed at a TV-PG audience. It's an embarrassment. It's perhaps here that Star Trek has become most anachronistic and useless. Because it has tried to stay in the family-friendly zone while cramming false sexuality down our throats, Enterprise's take on sex has been left behind in the land of irrelevance, and nobody cares. (For Sci-Fi Sexuality Dealt With, you should watch Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica.)

Really, on even the dumbest level of the male libido, are these girls even a turn-on? I didn't think so, because all I could think of was the fact that they'd painted these poor actresses green from head to toe, and all that paint is going to turn into quease-inducing cakes of sweat and pastel grime during ... well, whatever. A game of billiards, say. Yeah.

So Archer quickly is turned useless by the power of these women to DRIVE MEN WILD. There's one scene on the bridge that I have to commend for technical reasons, simply because it's directed so vividly oddly, as if Archer were on drugs. The camera movement is somewhat refreshing and appropriate. It made me want to smoke pot, something that would be preferable to watching this episode, albeit illegal. Hell, "Bound" should be illegal. It should be charged with impersonating a TV show. Of course, the burden of proof for that charge is much higher on UPN.

Meanwhile, Kelby sabotages the engines after one of the Orion girls sexes him into doing it. Trip is fortunately on hand to beat Kelby up in engineering, but not in time. Poor Kelby; what a thankless character. Promoted to chief engineer only to be written as a complete boob who is manipulated by Mr. Johnson into sabotaging the ship so he can get beat down in public by Trip, who then takes his job back.

Why is all of this happening? Phlox explains. The Orion women have strong pheromones that DRIVE MEN WILD and make them susceptible to suggestion. Duh!

And now I'm bored, so allow me to retort. What does Marcellus Wallace look like? Are you telling me you're as useless as an asshole right here? You're not Mr. Purple. Some guy on some other job is Mr. Purple. You're Mr. Pink! What ain't no country I've heard of. Do they speak English in What? I would quote lines from "Bound," but that would require me to think about the show. Oh, wait, here you go, courtesy the Wachowski brothers and Joe Pantoliano: "F***ing dark in here." Wrong Bound, yes, but one I'd much rather watch than this.

There was one question I had and was going to rip on the script about: If these women have so much control over their men with these pheromones, why aren't they running things? But that's where the Twist comes in. It's revealed that the Orion women actually ARE running things, counter to our previous conceptions, or, preconceptions. The men are the slaves. Whoa! Clever. Of course, this power structure is based solely on the women's ability to use their sexual charms to DRIVE MEN WILD, and this twist is not going to be of much consolation to those in the audience who correctly label the episode sexist.

But then again, that requires some sort of thought and deconstruction. There isn't thought to be found here, nor philosophies worthy of deconstruction. The episode is mainly a 60-minute IQ vortex.

The thwarting of this plot centers on T'Pol and Trip, who are immune to the Orion pheromones because T'Pol is a Vulcan and Trip had sex with her. Yes. They now share some sort of telepathic link. This leads us back to the whole Trip/T'Pol question: Will They or Won't They? It looked like Will They for a brief while, and then Won't They for a long time, and now we're back on Will They. It's sort of like flipping a coin a lot of times. I'm just going to throw in the towel and pose a question about the audience: Care They or Don't They? I answer this question Don't They.

Coto meant this all in good fun, proof of which is shown at the end, where T'Pol makes a joke, and then all the other guys poke fun at the Vulcan and laugh, just like when they used to laugh at Mr. Spock, the all-purpose straight man. But like the rest of this episode, it's a massive miscalculation. The episode doesn't work because it's an anachronism that doesn't stand on its own entertainment value. It comes off looking idiotic when it's meant to look affectionate. Coto has clearly taken his love of Star Trek to a place where the audience doesn't need it to go. This is the worst episode of Enterprise in more than two years.

Next week: Back to the mirror universe, which will hopefully be far more fun than this.

Previous episode: Divergence
Next episode: In a Mirror, Darkly, Part I

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Comment Section

123 comments on this post

    I've seen my fair share of rubbish Next Gen and voyager episodes. But this was surely the worst modern Trek ever made? This was worse then the 2 identical "Irish" holodeck episodes of Voyager.

    How did this episode even get off the planning stage let alone written, filmed, and broadcast.

    i actually really like this one. yeah, it's not "balance of terror" or "darmok," but who cares?

    & there's nothing about this episode that even remotely approaches VOY levels of stupidity. orion slave girls? - or evil clowns from the delta quadrant?

    No problems with this at all. My Wife thought it was good fun as well.

    Just a point - there are other females on board apart from Hoshi and T'Pol. The ep shows a few of them looking rather annoyed at the Orion girls and the smitten male crewmembers.. ;)

    2 stars. It was amusing, to a point, which was more than you can say about such excruciating experiences as "The Emperor's New Cloak" or "Spirit Folk" (shudder).

    Major complaint with the episode was that these supposedly hyper-seducers fell a long way short of being the irresistible sirens the crew treated them. Not that I'd throw any of them out of bed for screaming, "Too hard!", but T'Pol is still better eye-candy than any of them - or at least, Mirror T'Pol was.

    I'd speculate that given the show's predominant demographic - horny teenagers with raging acne and military parents - they're not likely to be too choosy about sex-objects providing they're not more than 5" adversely away from 36-24-36, nor more than 25. But for those of us who know about life, who have screwed a better grade of female, and who realise that this is STILL fiction, we ain't gonna buy it.

    In my case, LITERALLY - I downloaded a copy but wouldn't pay for this junk out of the annual interest on an 8-figure account.

    Murderously, coma-inducingly, BORING. I found myself skipping thru some of the middle scenes thinking, "would you just move along to the damn attack already so we can get some action?" because it was so painfully obvious what the women were up to and that this was a trap, 10 minutes into the episode, that everything else was just a waste of time. Its as if they thought we were stupid enough not to figure this out until the last moment, so they could get away wtih what amounted to a half hour of filler before Phlox's reveal. Come on, three or four different pointless seduction/bedroom scenes? That 2 minute scene in the gym? Really, thats the best you guys could do? I feel like I just watched 5 minutes of (predictable) plot with 45 minutes of filler.

    As others have hinted, where were all the female crew members? The male engineers are fighting amongst themselves in the middle of a crisis, but you dont have enough females to sub for them? You've got 3 Orions emitting powerful pheromones that give them control over any man theyre in prolonged contact with...yet you leave TWO MEN IN CHARGE OF WATCHING THEM???

    This was one of the most boring episodes of Trek I've ever watched. Not as flat out HORRIBLE as some of Voyagers greatest (s)hits, but still an hour of my life I'll never get back.

    As I have not seen the episode (and I don't have any intention of ever seeing it), I'll just say one thing, in case no one noticed: Cyia Batten was the first actress to play Tora Ziyal.

    I have to say I agree with you on most of your points in the review but I admit I did like the dance scene, the way it was shot was kind of interesting.

    I will give Enterprise one thing though, they do actually explores some of the races from TOS, when is the last time you saw an Orion or Andorian.

    Mr. Kroeker usually ends up directing some of the most meaningful of Star Trek fare (including, if I recall, ore season-enders than anyone else). Boy howdy not in this case tho....yeesh.

    And how many ENT episodes now has T'Pol been immune to whatever was afflicting everyone else because of her "unique Vulcan physiology". I don't think there are enough fingers on two hands to count.

    I always hated how in every Trek incarnation, Humans were the most frail, fragile, and susceptible to every affliction that Vulcans, Ferengi, Borg, or somesuch were somehow immune to.

    If T'Pol weren't aboard, the ship would have been destroyed several times over.

    I didn't hate this episode. It wasn't good. But, parts of it were somewhat amusing. It was kind of interesting to see the first tora ziyal all grown up.

    Anyway, what I really wanted to say is this; Jammer, thanks for the many uses of the phrase "DRIVE MEN WILD" in this review. Haha, your review was the best part of this episode for me!

    Maybe there's some factor in Orion pheremones that causes divisive audience response.

    This was not a one-star episode. Sure, it didn't have much going on plot-wise and was therefore slow-paced. And sure, if there was some attempt at ironic commentary on Trek's old-fashioned sexism, I missed it. But this was hardly painful to watch or embarrassing for the actors. "Bound" deserves at least the same 1.5 stars that Jammer gave "Mudd's Women" (though as I noted in my comment to "The Aenar," star ratings aren't equal between series).

    Oh God- just terrible. I have really been enjoying season 4 (apart from the terrible opening crap that finally killed off the temporal cold war and that snoozefest about the transporter guy that noone knew or cared about), but this one takes the cake for worst of the season. No surprises, boring storyline and just the most idiotic homage to TOS with Vulcans joke followed by fake manic human laughter- it was like something out of the Brady Bunch movie.

    As I watched the rest of the season I was genuinely sad that the show was cancelled as it seemed to be finding its niche and then I saw this written by the show runner and was kinda glad that there will be no more insults like this.

    Seen worse episodes of Trek (all varieties), but the that's really awful... hey, wait. Green boobies! Now where was I...

    T'Pol is immune to radiation.
    Archer is being held captive.
    Someone has to leave a place before a dangerous phenomenon will kill him, but he can't but at second .00001 he just makes it.
    People are doing weird because there's radiation or some sort of airborne substance.
    Some hostile alien enters Enterprise and presses some computer buttons, rendering the crew instantly unable to "lock him out" or "override him".
    Enterprise encounters a ship with a shield that is impenetrable for their weapons.

    From those cliché perspectives a somewhat stupid episode where the men turn out to be the slaves of their women has some surprisingly redeeming qualities.

    You guys really have some issues - I suppose lack of love and sex and you must be leading some really lonely unfulfilled lives when you cant appreciate this. If you hated the episode so much, why are there so many comments to it - shouldnt you have just ignored it? I plays on your complexes, thats why.
    I loved the episode - one of the most enjoyable ones. 4 stars.

    There is no reason I should like this episode, but I did. It's probably because I've always been fascinated by the idea of Sirens like in "The Odyssey" and other Greek tales.

    But just thinking back to Voyager....not even half of that series was as entertaining as this episode. That's a sad realization.

    Bound was a solid 3.0 stars for me. I knew this was a green hottie episode and went in with low expectations but it was actually pretty good. And Ziyal as the head Orion women and the other DS9 alumni as the Orion trader was neat. The dance was excellent and the sexual innuendo was well done for sexual innuendo. Remember this series opened with T'Pol in her undies getting a salve rub down or T'Pol (again!) in decon going all Ponfar like a pol dancer? This was much more reasonable and intentionally funny than those scenes. I liked the twist at the end with who's really in charge! Good episode.

    Funny how the truth hurts, huh? People don't like seeing men reduced to babbling fools over women but in reality it happens every day on a lesser level. I have seen it many times and even today when a pretty petite blonde walked into a restaurant the men seemed to trip over themselves. So yeah, this was an exaggerated yet humorous depiction of human nature and sexuality. It also dabbled into how women respond to other women who appear to be a threat but they could have gone much deeper with that than was shown.

    Now the Trip and T'Pol connection is so obvious but at least it is fun seeing Trip try to control his actions even better than a Vulcan.

    Phlox is definitely my favorite character on Enterprise.

    Hahaha, oh it wasn't that bad. It was a bit of TOS style sexy fun.
    But I suppose it's a point that they should've just done a porn spinoff called Star Trek: The Next Penetration or something

    In terms of Trip+T'Pol, AT LAST. Can we just marry them off and get it over with now? :P
    (I'll admit, I d'awwed. A bit.)

    LOVED the "it's the women who own the men" twist. Very life-like, very believable, and I wonder if they're related to cats.

    I do agree with Curtis's point about there not being any gay people in the future in Trek. Or at least, only in the mirror universe that will no doubt show plenty of lesbianism next episode, if DS9 is to go by. Whenever there was a hint of it, it had a "reason" like Dax's previous male host, rather than being a sexual preference. It's a shame that a show originally hailed (hur hur... hailed...) for making taboos of the time like women and other races in positions of power seem as normal as they should be, rarely even touched on alternative sexual preferences.

    Now the mirror universe next. I thought that was spawned from a TOS episode. Whatever. I hope it doesn't suck as much as half the DS9 ones did :P

    Like ARX I loved how after they figured out that the pheromones caused men to do whatever the women wanted, and right after Archer almost let them free, they still left two men in charge of guarding them.

    The T'Pol/Trip immunity thing was laugh-out-loud stupid. So mating with T'Pol makes you immune? She should have mated with all the men on board, then. There has to be a "needs of the many" joke in there somewhere.

    Wouldn't it have been interesting if Harrad-Sar was not attacking Enterprise at all, but Archer, due to his pheremone fueled paranoia, believed he was? And then Archer could have attacked Harrad Sar first, before T'Pol and Trip relieved Archer of duty and broke off the fight. Harrad Sar could have then commented that he didn't realize human beings would be so susceptible to Orion female pheremones, take back the girls and apologize.

    I agree with the one star, although I thought the scene between Trip and T'Pol toward the end was worthwhile, and I did enjoy the "everybody laugh at the Vulcan" bit at the end, which was a far more sincere tribute to TOS than anything else in the show.

    Another idea: maybe Orion males could have the same intoxicating effect on women that the females have on men. I would have enjoyed it if at least one of the three "gifts" had been an Orion guy who makes all the women aboard Enterprise go crazy while all the men abaord Enterprise become stupidly jealous. It could have been played for laughs as sort of a "Naked Time" episode. Although I suppose ultimately the whole concept of Orion slave people should have perhaps been left to TOS.

    Oh, this episode was fun! Plot wise a rip off of an episode of firefly, but the Orions are just a great species in terms of make-up. And the dance scene was fabulous.

    Who wants deep and dramatic in every ep? This was sheer green entertainment!

    Of course, it was mad not to put a female security guard in charge of guarding those three green ladies.

    Nobody will argue that this was a great episode, but it was obviously meant to be a joke and I think it succeeds at that. Unlike say all of Voyager, there were some genuinely funny moments. Even better was the twist at the end where it's revealed that the Orion men are the slaves, not the women. That's actually one of the better twists in the series as it really does play effectively on our stereotypes of gender relations.

    Have to agree that it wasn't SO awful.

    It was bringing old TOS series back to life and exploring its species a bit more. And TOS was like that... silly faux sexuality... this was putting a more modern spin on it (and yes, I realise it is still full of gender stereotypes etc., but as I said, them's the roots of old-style trek.

    It gave the Orion sex slaves a bit more depth than the 2D way they had been presented in TOS (by saying the men are actually the slaves), and yes, I do think it was meant to be at least a bit tongue in cheek.

    I do think that Jammer is once again being unfair on ENT here, because if it had been Jadzia Dax in that sort of a role I'm fairly sure he wouldn't have protested...

    Well, I consider this tongue-in-cheek and could enjoy it on that level. Also, I must admit I found the notion of the male being controlled by the female very refreshing..... And very hot. "Why would you do to keep me forever? " "Anything you say!" Works for me. ;)

    I'm terribly sorry but apart from being rather silly there's nothing wrong with this episode.

    Perhaps some people here look too deep into it and are unable to just sit back and enjoy a good 45 minutes of undemanding, harmless, entertaining nonsense.

    What a terrible episode. Not only boring and deja-vu, but completely sexist and vaguely homophobic (apparently, no one is gay on that ship).

    If you don't understand why it's sexist, how about:

    > These women "in control" not because of their capacities (intelligence, leadership...) like men, but just because of pheromones and sexual attractivity

    > Men are all bumbling idiots who have no control over their emotions (both offensive to men AND legitimizing things like rape)

    > These are supposedly in control, but Orion is controlled by the men (a male captain, male slave owners...). Not matter that in the slave market women were being sold just like the other slaves. Hows that for power.

    Once again, we've yet to see any species where men are not dominant. And apart from the Cpt of the Columbia, I haven't seen any female captain in ANY of the species we've encountered.

    I like Star Trek, I really do, but sometimes these kinds of episodes come along and I'm reminded I'm watching a show made by and for stupid teenage boys, and I remember why I'm a bit ashamed to say I like Star Trek in public

    The best thign about this episode is the continuity nod in the mention in the opening scene of a starbase in the Berengaria system, which I recall being mentioned by Kai Winn as a core Federation world.

    Not a five star episode for sure, but I enjoyed it. Not ALL episodes have to make me think about deep topics. I also liked the development of the situation between Trip and T'Pol. Apart from that, an average no brainer episode.

    Man, I think the "outrage" over this episode is a bit over the top. It's like the reviewer—and everyone else who agrees with him—simply took a few truisms to heart and completely judged the episode based solely on those:

    Slavery=BAD!
    Objectification of Women=BAD!
    Men who let their libido run away with them when hot women are around=BAD!
    And, as a bonus: No (obviously) gay characters on the Enterprise=BAD!

    So therefore:
    An episode that doesn't righteously condemn all of the above and instead approaches Orion culture on its own terms…OH MY GOD THIS IS SO HORRIBLY BAD IT CAN'T POSSIBLY HAVE ANY MERIT WHATSOEVER!!! THE OUTRAGE!!!! THE OUTRAGE!!! IT'S OUTRAGEOUS, I TELL YOU!!!!!!

    Gnashing of teeth ensues.

    Having said all that, while I liked the episode and found it entertaining, it wasn't the best Star Trek (in all of its incarnations) has to offer. I'd give it a solid three stars out of five. By no means was it as bad as it's made out to be. It did recycle various concepts from Star Trek's past, so it wasn't groundbreaking. But as an hour of entertainment I enjoyed it.

    Rather than go further into an essay on the episode, I'll just list some bullet points of my thoughts on the episode and the review:

    • The dance at the beginning was VERY WELL done. The choreography, the editing, etc. More than just "hot chicks jiggling around"

    • That Trip would be immune to the pheromone effect of the Orion girls due to his hookup with T'Pol was a plot contrivance, but one steeped in the tradition of Star Trek

    • Given that it is a pheromone effect clouding the males' judgement, would it not stand to reason that even gay male characters would be affected on some level? Not in a come back to the Home team kind of way, but at least some degree of confusion? That would explain why simply assigning a gay character to chaperone them wouldn't have worked. Even a headache like the other women.

    • I was confused by the Orions' dastardly plan; was it really necessary to implant the women on the Enterprise when they had Archer on their ship and at their mercy at the beginning of the episode? Couldn't he have simply taken him hostage and/or took off to the Klingon Empire to turn him over to them? But then again getting the Orion women on board and wreaking havoc was the entire point of the episode, so, nevermind ;-)

    • One of the commentators above made a very valid point about how men will fall over themselves when a really hot woman appears, even without pheromones affecting them. It's human nature. Deal with it.

    • I totally bought T'Pol's and Trip's relationship drama; the two actors have legitimate chemistry and Jolene Blaylock's acting vastly improved over the course of the series (some of her season one acting was just flat as a board). It's too bad they didn't have her with long hair for the duration of the series instead of just the Mirror Universe…but that's just my sexist male libido talking, right? DOH!

    One final note: I thought the big "reveal" that it was the women who really ran the show despite all appearances to the contrary was pretty weak and a lame attempt to take the edge off any anticipated complaints about the episode's (alleged) sexism.

    Dear God this was bad. I have always skipped this in the viewings but this is "Twisted"/"Aquiel"/"Move Along Home" level wasted screentime. In 1990, it was *slightly* more acceptable to be oblivious to the fact that sexuality was less cut and dry than the powers that were wished, but in 2004, I would at least expect them to avoid subjects which would cast such a bright light on how obviously childish the Trek writers were when it came to sex. Just awful.

    While it certainly wasn't a wonderful episode, I would never say it was "the worst episode in more than two years." If nothing else, it was watchable. I can recall a couple of others that weren't even that.

    Just silly, entertaining fun. I liked that it tied in to TOS. Come on, people, does everything have to be so serious? Those green women were a hoot, and their dance was well worth watching. It was nice to see Trip and T'Pol in their scene together, too.

    I liked how the opening scene was a sneaky reference to some dialogue in TOS's "This Side of Paradise". Other than that, worst Enterprise ep since "Night in Sickbay".

    Good FUN trek. That's all this episode is. That's all it was meant to be.

    We learn that there is more than just a human relationship between T'Pol and Trip. (wow, so THAT's how Vulcans keep their husbands :-))

    We also now know who runs the show in the Orion Syndicate.

    I actually thought this was better than the Orions in TOS Trek. The opening dance was simply outstanding and better than the dance in 'The Menagerie'.

    Performance call out... Cyia Batten as Navaar was outstanding. She's played many Star Trek characters very well.

    (yes, all 3 were drop dead gorgeous)

    4 out of 5 stars for Trek having some fun again.

    "It should be charged with impersonating a TV show." - love when your reviews are more entertaining that the episodes.

    How'd this get one star?

    Wow, harsh review! I got a kick out of this episode. Humankind hasn't -- and won't in 200 years -- evolve past our sex drives. Things I loved:

    Learning the Orion slave women are the real leaders and masters in their society. It makes a TON of sense. Because having slave women act like they're just thrilled to be owned as sex objects is frankly ridiculous, and a singularly stupid male wet dream.

    Trip and T'Pol are baaaack. Sort of. So happy to see it. I had a strong hunch Trip would be unaffected by the pheromones somehow because of T'Pol. Guess I'm a romantic -- I love their scenes together, and the gradual development of their relationship through the years, while our erstwhile reviewer clearly does not, despite romances on other Trek shows.

    Now we know why and how the arranged marriages on Vulcan work. No wonder they keep talking about growing to have a strong bond -- the husbands and wives are in each other's heads!

    Also loved the double meaning in the episode title -- bonded romantically and bonded as slaves.

    Kelby feeling threatened by Trip's return is perfectly natural and makes a lot of sense. Of course he'd feel that way, and he's human, so it would be hard to hide. But Trip is right -- he knows the engines inside and out like no one else.

    Yay! Trip is back on Enterprise for good, and T'Pol admitted she wanted him there.

    I actually really like Enterprise a lot. I think the second half of the third season made for some of the best Trek since, the Dominion war. Tense, spiraling out of control, and with the whole world at stake. Season 4, its OKish, but this episode they really phoned it in.

    Captain scores the green chicks? Tick. Sexist essentialism. Tick. Women as property. Tick. Men as insatible slaves to desire. Tick. This might have been great fun if it was made two decades earlier. But in those two decades prior to this, popuar culture had started actually asking women how they feel and we learned that this is no way to treat women.

    I understand Orion slave women are part of Star Trek lore, but that could have been the plot point to a far more interesting episode about gender politics, objectification and the sex trade.

    Instead we got this. Honestly, it felt like cowardice from the writers, or more likely the cigar chomping studio execs demanding "MORE SAUCY".

    Bah. One star.

    How you gave this even one star is beyond me. Even seeing Travis all sweaty, and muscley in a sleeveless shirt couldn't save this piece of tripe.

    With so few episodes left in the series, it's quite a shame they wasted one on this stuff.

    One thing is clear.

    Jammer doesn't ship
    T'Pol + Trip. ;-)

    As for the episode, meh. Kind of slow and predictable. I was really hoping for Hoshi and T'Pol to team up and take down the Orion girls on the bridge near the end there. A little Vulcan nerve pinch and an open can of Hoshi-whoop-ass would have gone well together. On the positive side:

    -The mention of the Gorn at the start of the dance scene ("the less said about the Gorn the better" ... hahahhahhaa!! )

    -T'Pol and Trip together again!!! Yay!!!

    -Fun with Vulcans tribute to TOS at the end

    -The interesting reveal on Orion society

    2.5* from this Cap.

    I smoked pot while watching the episode and can confirm for certain that smoking pot is preferable :p

    After reading the comments I have to say I believe I have a unique take on the message of this episode. I won't be so arrogant to say it looks like every one else missed the point and I'm the only viewer that "got" this episode but......First I must say I liked it. 4 out of 5 stars. It went back to T.O.S. and explored the Orion culture. I mean if you are a straight male how can you object to "green slave women." But wait it turns out the women aren't the slaves but the men. "How can that be you say,since the women are sold into slavery?" Well first of all the most beautiful women would bring the highest price and therefore be sold to the richest men. And the men would then be controlled by the women. So being sold to the richest man affords the most beautiful women the most room for advancement. Sound a bit familiar? Something pretty close to that happens here on Earth. The most beautiful women usually date rich men. I mean when was the last time you saw a supermodel marry a walmart employee? Nuff said?
    But the real message here is for men...and it is...Don't let women control you with their sex or you will be made a slave. You know, child support, community property, the big "D" that sort of thing. It shows us the wrong way for a man to have a relationship with a woman with Kelby's pleading, "Don't go" And then the woman telling him what he has to do to keep her.
    Think I'm wrong? Well, just look at the last scene with Trip and Tpol. Trip has already asked to be returned to Enterprise but doesn't tell TPol. He attempts to get TPol to admit that she want's him back. When her pride initially prevents her from doing so Trip walks away only to have TPol follow him and plant a very passionant kiss on his lips in order to make it clear what she wants. Only then does Trip tell her that he already asked Archer for his old job back.
    So we have two examples of how to deal with women. The weak way with Kelby begging the girl not to go. And the strong way with Trip walking away and allowing TPol to follow. I could have said the wrong way and the right way instead of the weak way and the strong way but you get the idea.
    So this is really a primer on how men should treat women. Be weak and get treated like shit or be strong and get treated right. I'd bet a weeks pay it was written by men who have been through a divorce.
    I suspect my take on this episode might infuriate a few feminist but what the hell. Most feminist I've met are pissed at the world from the get go and nothing I can say can change that little fact. And if I am accused of being a male chauvinist pig(what ever that means) I can only reply with, "Oink"
    But, I'm in my fifties, I quit counting how many time I have crossed the Pacific Ocean when I got to fifty times and I have lived in many countries and experienced many cultures. And I have quite literally had more alien tail than Captain Kirk. And from experience I can say if you go in weak you will end up getting the shitty end of the stick every damn time. If you go in strong you won't win every time but your odds go up considerably.
    And finally I will say again, The message of this episode is just so obvious it's hard to see how anyone could miss it.

    Spot on, Greg. The most amusing thing about these comments is the clear delineation between the younger posters (whatever their physical age) and those of us who've lived long enough to understand the episode, to say nothing of those of us who have been on both sides of divorces and were bored by "50 Shades of Gray" because of its Hollowood surface appeal. ;)

    It will be interesting (but I probably won't be around) if this blog is still active in another 20 years to see if some of those same posters have changed their minds. I hope, for their sakes, they have.

    Greg nailed it, nicely done and kudos to him. Still the episode itself could have been done with more nuance and with an overall better story. But if the point of the episode is how to approach a relationship and not get burned, then it's correct. Those of us who have lived longer and become wiser, now know the score. Be strong and don't be weak, and never let someone steamroll you or make you sacrifice your principles and values. That advice is good for men and women who want to enter a romantic relationship. But frankly, friends with benefits is best, and I think most young people today are realizing that as well.

    Weak, Strong?
    Men are from Mars etc
    It seems this episode is pulling out some of the commonly held views in the eternal battle of the sexes.
    The comments are very interesting and much thought has bee given to them but the genesis of such an intriguing discussion is ,sadly, a really mediocre episode.

    Fear of female sexuality makes fools of men, especially writers.

    Hey Gil it's not female sexuality that makes fools of men, rather a corrupt legal system here in the first world that profits by portraying women as victims and seeing men only as sperm and money donors. Of course if the man is the sort that lets his cock make all the decisions for him he is a fool in the first place and easily manipulated by the self serving system that is in place. I think it was the late Robin Williams that said, "God gave man two heads but only enough blood to run one at a time." How true for so many of us.
    I also recall a black rapper that was being interviewed on tv. The female interviewer was asking him why so much of his song lyrics seemed to indicate his lack of respect for women. His response was that he lacked respect for women because while men had sex for pleasure women have it for financial gain. Regrettably, I also find this true.

    Light, goofy, even indeed somewhat juvenile but not excessively so instead pretty amusingly so. I think 2.5 stars, even a guilty pleasure 3 if not for the dumb idea that the Orion women were actually in charge (just have the Orion males uniquely immune as seems implied everywhere else and most of this episode); surprised people could consider it terrible, let alone boring.

    I don't see why having sexuality in a family-viewers acceptable form means its faux, only for nervous humor or embarrassing.

    I thought the funniest moments were Phlox being agitated and injecting himself and Trip goofily matter-of-fact blasting Reed, Mayweather and Archer.

    I've just finished watching Enterprise for the first time (finally). Aside from the general awfulness of this episode, I find it funny nobody here has mentioned the scene where Archer almost destroys a random science ship that started firing on the Enterprise for no reason. What the heck??? It comes out of nowhere, fires at the Enterprise ineffectually, and it's never brought up again. Terrible writing at its best (worst).

    It's no classic by any means, but as a riff on Orion Slave Girl sexuality TOS style this isn't actually all bad - and the reveal that the men are in fact the slaves at least offers the proof that this is a riff and not a lazy mans excuse to do some hot slave action. That said, it's just not that interesting and as a rare standalone these days it shows that there are some benefits to arc shows moving the plot forward.

    The one running story addressed here is the on again-off again Trip/T'Pol romance - and yes, it pleased me that they are back together. It just seems like a nice story, and we don't always get a lot of those. 2 stars.

    Just seen this one today. It's the last episode of Star Trek I haven't seen yet, so this is the day I've officially finished watching all 705 episodes of live action Trek.

    As for the episode itself: It's awful. I can overlook the sexism and the plot itself isn't terrible, but the entire episode is so d*** embarassing to watch. I'm not sure why, but it felt far more embarassing than, say, TOS's "Mudd's Women" or even ENT's "Bounty". In short, something in this specific episode affected me in a very wrong sort of way. Perhaps I'm allergic to Orion pheromones or something...

    I did like the final scene with T'Pol's joke, though. A very nice homage to TOS, complete with a musical cue which was just perfect for that scene.

    Just a quick comment to say that Greg's earlier comments are the biggest load of misogynist rubbish I've had the misfortune of reading in quite some time. Spectacularly ignorant of almost every level.

    'How to deal with women'....haha.

    Incredible stuff.

    Oh, come on. Stupid, campy fun. So what if it's not world peace. I love most of seasons three and four of Enterprise. They never should have cancelled this show.

    After so many years watching the series again and this awful episode I must say, thank god that this ENT show was cancelled. I am sorry for the actors as they tried, but fell victim to the writer and showmaker.

    Sexist and passive-aggressive homphobic as well. So much has changed in the past decade. I can't believe that there never was a gay character portrayed in any of the five series that was supposed to depict our shared utopian future. I feel the same way when there is some crime on one of the starshps in the series and that there is no video evidence. Our primitive 7/11s have better criminal surveillance than Starfleet.

    Bluedylan
    Hey cupcake. Did the fact that I mentioned that I have quite literally had more alien tail than Captain Kirk ruffle your feminist sensibilities? I have piloted a plane to the edge of the atmosphere in my professional life and I have been 300 ft down in the Pacific ocean with nothing more than a 3 mil wetsuit and a bottle of tri-mix to sustain me in my private life. I did that last one just for kicks. In either situation one tiny mistake can kill you. Funny thing was I have never encountered any feminist at either place. Just men.

    Yeah, this episode is definitely not what I was hoping to see when I pressed Play...
    Not as completely terrible as 'Bounty', but most of the way there. Perhaps this idea could have worked if the writer had not been so determined to steer us all the way down the lite and silly path...

    How bout instead of bitching, oh sorry, umm, complaining, that the "episode" is sexist, which by the way is not possible, you could just see it as a fairly entertaining (after you pull the stick out your ass) look at how humanity USED to treat its women, in a far better future than where we're headed if we can't even bear to think about our past mistakes. Sure, scoop all that misogyny under the rug, we don't wanna see that because we would rather believe in the fairy tale that we're all perfect, just the way we arrrree and we always have been. Thats a load of shit. I suspect that blinding attitude is why you wouldn't think it might be possible for another sentient species besides us to develop a super high level of pheromones as self preservation, when that shit happens in nature EVERYWHERE. Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. How the hell we gonna learn from our past mistakes when they keep getting covered up? When people wanna act like everything's all nice and neat as long as nobody does anything to bust that bubble? If that's your attitude towards it, my advice would be to go back to watching Tom n Jerry cause this here for grownups

    Lighten up people indeed. It wasn't THAT bad. I've sat through far, far, FAR worse ST episodes (several Voyager episodes spring to mind). It was watchable and even amusing. I have my suspicions it may even have been a fairly accurate representation of the hetrosexual male pysche (particularly after a few drinks...) I also liked the twist that it's actually the Orion males who are the slaves.

    For those commentators above who found the Orion ladies unappealing and can't work out what the crew found so attractive blah blah blah can I just point out it was actually totally irrelevant what they looked like. It was the pheremones they were releasing which were affecting everyone except Trip and T'pol.

    Now, the third time, I really enjoyed this episode. Enterprise gets threatened by a strange unknown Phenomena having g an impact on the judgement of several crew members including the captain. The Vulcan saves them giving some more knowledge about the Vulcan "Paranormal" Mental capacity and and its interaction with the human species. LGM was yesterday, now SGW "Slenderer Green Woman" was the threat. And T'Pol was really funny but Trip got the last word.

    It is en episode they you remember either because you find it is silly and sexistic or you like because you are a silly sexist ;-)

    I'm not going to comment on the episode at all. I find it interesting that folks on this board cannot agree on whether the episode is sexist or not. Here's a thought. It's pretty easy to tell whether something is racist. So try this test on this episode: Imagine all the female characters are black and all the male characters are white. Do you have the same reaction?

    While not a great episode, I liked it ok. There was some decent humor in it for one thing.

    I don't see it as sexist at all. They are Orion slave girls. That's what they do, act sexy. May as well say the show is dog-ist(?) because Porthos acts like a dog.

    And I didn't see anyone throwing the term sexist around every time Trip or Mayweather or Archer took off their shirt. How about the Ferengi episode where Trip was in his underwear for about 1/2 of it? Not one mention of sexism in those comments. I never understood why showing a woman half naked is supposedly sexist, but showing a man half naked isn't. And people like looking at attractive people, so what's the big deal? Also they were, you know...aliens, with an alien culture, and if they run around in bikinis all the time, who am I to judge?


    @Just another fan

    '...I find it interesting that folks on this board cannot agree on whether the episode is sexist or not. Here's a thought. It's pretty easy to tell whether something is racist. So try this test on this episode: Imagine all the female characters are black and all the male characters are white. Do you have the same reaction?'

    Like I said, I didn't think it was sexist. BTW, are they still supposed to be aliens in your scenario? Anyway, why would it be racist for black people to act all sexy and have some sort of pheromones that make white people swoon over them? How about if all the women were Mexican and all the men were Japanese? Is that still racist to you? Or, say...the women were green and the men were white (except one)? Does that make it racist?

    And what if the Orions had been men and all the women (and yes, there are more than just Hoshi on board) went weak in the knees, and the men all got headaches and whatever? Is that still sexist?

    Any time one person or small group of people is depicted in a certain way, doesn't automatically make it '-ist'. Racist, sexist, religionist, ageist, blah blah blah. In this episode, there were three alien women acting sexy. That doesn't suddenly imply that anyone thinks all women act that way. Or with the 'what if they were black people and white people' the same thing applies. That doesn't suddenly imply that anyone thinks all black people would act that way.

    Assuming a single person or small group of people represents an entire race, or sex, or religion, etc. is wrong. So saying this episode is sexist, because a few women act sexy, is no different than watching an episode of 'Law and Order' or 'CSI' and saying it's racist because the criminal in it happened to be black in that episode. Anytime any character that is black or gay or a woman or whatever they happen to be, is allegedly portrayed in a negative way, it's not suddenly racist or homophobic or sexist. People who think it is, are the ones who perpetuate all the bad stereotypes.

    Say I'm watching the episode of 'Law and Order' I mentioned above where the criminal turns out to be black. I think to myself that guy is a bad guy. It doesn't matter if he's black or white or green. He killed that other dude, so he's a bad guy. But then the person I'm watching it with says 'I knew they would do that! They think all blacks are criminals! That's racist!'. Well guess who is actually the racist? Me, who thought he was a bad guy because he murdered someone? Or the person who brings up the fact that he was black and equates that with criminal behaviour? They probably aren't even aware of what they did, and their intention might be good, but they are the ones thinking racist thoughts, not me. At least not until they brought it up. So who actually perpetuates all this racism, sexism, etc.? Hmmmmm....

    Where was I? Oh yeah. 2 stars.

    It’s true that we at home don’t have the benefit of smelling the pheromones. But I still thought the Orion women were very sexy and appealing.

    The one who went after Archer seems familiar. Anyone else?

    @Slackerink, I'm not sure if it was her, but one of the Orion women was played by the actress who played Ziyal 1st, I think (there were 3), Gul Dukat's daughter on DS9.

    They were trying to have fun with it, but I'm glad I can fast forward to any scenes with just Connor Trinneer or John Billingsley. The two most interesting characters in my opinion. The green makeup was not well done on those actresses so it took me out of the show. I did like to see Archer lose sexual control a bit. That was fun.

    Jammer's review: 1 star.
    Episode : 3 stars.
    Its sad, when bias becomes so obvious.
    Go watch some 2 star Dabo girls episodes or the Lyta and Mookie marriage ....

    You've got to love how all the women commentator enjoy the episode, with the only complaints coming from men (including the reviewer)!

    The bad part of the first 2/3 of the episode was that it took so long. It was just predictable and uninteresting. The only exception was the part where a random ship shows up, shoots Enterprise, and goes away. As Mr Waffle commented above, what was that supposed to be about? Does that set up something later in the season that I don't remember right now?

    But the last 1/3 was actually fine. The T'Pol/Trip scenes work well, and the revelation at the end was good.

    It's strange. I'm used to stuff that starts out well but then ends in a predictable and uninteresting way. I'm unsure how to grade it. 1.5 stars? 2 stars?

    Basically a story (?) fabricated on a single idea. Who doesn't like an Orian slave? Unimaginative TOS cheesiness, or maybe a homage to Mudd's Women, but the landscape was eye candy.

    "Bound" really seemed like some attempt at a tribute to "Mudd's Women" -- and that's a lousy idea (let's take a shitty TOS episode and put the ENT stamp on it). It was tough getting through this episode. It was predictable, ridiculous, and annoying.

    If one of the revelations is that it's really the Orion men who are slaves, then what are these women getting out of it? Or do they just live for seducing men and being bought and sold? Anyhow that was just a line from the Orion pirate so who knows what to make of it. And T'Pol at the end with her comment (re. women) failed to achieve the Spock-like wit at end of the occasional TOS episode.

    First of all, Archer's initial judgment is idiotic -- agreeing to go to the Orion pirate's ship given their prior experience/enslavement. But once he's there and falls under the women's spell then basically all hell breaks loose. And it takes an awfully long time for Trip/T'Pol to mount any kind of resistance -- why was T'Pol so docile here?? She's organized mutinies before. I think some folks blame TOS for sexism but this episode was worse for that than anything in TOS.

    As for the T'Pol/Trip subplot -- the episode brings them closer. I think T'Pol's character wavers in its Vulcan-ness, however. This was the more interesting part of the episode albeit not that interesting in absolute terms. Trip had a good line about the "psychic bond" with T'Pol which prevented him from falling under influence of the Orion women.

    1 star for "Bound" -- very simplistic and quite stupid plot, not a lot of thought went into this episode and it's one of the worst episodes of ENT S4. At least as far as the Federation is concerned, the Orion's have been fully understood -- albeit at almost great cost. It all goes back to a dumb Archer decision in the first place and there have been enough ENT episodes where this is the case and that's a real drag on the series.

    To all those bashing the fact that this clearly shows that there can be no gay people, well:

    A) Given that the effect is supposed to be produced by a highly potent pheromone, it may well effect someone who's gay in the same way, or
    B) It might have made any gay men listless and unproductive and any gay women hyperaroused and delusional.

    We never saw either on screen, but we never saw either confirmed to not be the case.

    Woah, Jammer seemed determined to hate this one. A rather harsh review (and really, must you lefties call everything "sexist"? Jesus.)

    I'd have given it 2 stars. All the time the green women spent seducing the men was rather tedious, but I found the idea of the women enslaving the men interesting (though it does beg the question of why they are still referred to as "slave girls" in the DS9 era), and the telepathic link between Trip and T'Pol explained why they had the same dream... I had been wondering that.

    Lighten up, people.

    I'm amazed that a lot of the men in the comments don't realize that the Orions are committing sexual assault (and possibly rape offscreen). They're green versions of Bill Cosby using pheromones like roofies. Worst of all, no one in episode seems concerned about that once they boot the bad guys. Guess some people are more willing to be sexually harassed/assaulted if the perp is hot. I get what they're trying to do with the "women are really in control" twist but it makes little sense here (like most of the episode). I like the novels' explanation that the Orion women in Bound are the elites while slaves like Marta are at the bottom of the pecking order.

    Yes it's better than TATV but that's an extremely low bar to pass. It's full of plot holes Travis can drive a ship through. To respond to Rahul, I think T'Pol isn't focused on mounting resistance because she's too depressed about Trip. Understandable but what really got me was that the female MACO's from season 3 seemed to disappear. They couldn't find any women to guard the Orions? And why would Trip come back so fast? Yes he got the upper hand in the end but the fact that he was so distraught when he left Enterprise kind of undercuts the message. If I moved out to break up with my boyfriend, I would have more misgivings about coming back no matter how much I miss home and the old neighborhood. I'm a die-hard Trip/T'Pol shipper who's the first to want them back together but the writers gave them an easy fix. Plus that reduced Hernandez to a dues ex machina for them.

    I say this as somebody who likes Trek and has watched every episode of every completed series at least twice over and each movie more times than I can remember - even the complete bowel-movements that were The Motionless Picture, Insurrection and Nemesis.

    Smoking weed is preferable to watching ANY episode of Star Trek.

    Terrible. Not even worth one star. It's not only boring and lacking a story, it's actually infuriating. And just when Enterprise was looking up, it goes crashing down again. Such a shame. Btw, Agitated Archer on pheromones isn't such a big difference from regular Angry Archer.

    @Jez "you lefties" Really? Did autocorrect replace "you commies"? This episode is sexist, doesn't matter if you look at it from the left or the right.

    Great episode, one of the best Enterprise eps. The girls were stunning and the reactions from the crew were believable. Quality twist that it's the Orion Men that are the real slaves - 4 stars.

    Whoa more cringe, less laughter.

    Reading the review after watching such an episode is a delight.

    What now, 1 1/2 star enterprise episodes or 1 star voyager...
    hmmm I dislike enterprise more and also haven't seen all of the episodes.
    Enterprise it is.

    This episode is a lot of things but I disagree with Jammer that it's boring. It's dismal, badly written, sexist, need-a-whiskey-to-get-through-it type of episode, but definitely not boring. I chuckled throughout the episode.

    But Holy Moly !!!! It's amazing what a chore it is to do even do a rerun of Enterprise. I began this rerun 2018 summer and it has been struggle to get myself motivated to watch an episode here and there. Easily the worst Trek of the franchise (relatively speaking of course, I still watched every episode when it originally aired, gladly). I couldn't even get my energy up to comment (not sure if I did or not). Even seasons 3 and 4, they are fine seasons in that they pick up the storylines, the pace, and thankfully get into more serialized story telling, but even those two seasons are above average and nothing wrong compared to the rest of the franchise.

    Anyhow, five episodes left, I believe... I think I'll make it to the end by next month!

    Typically silly Trek-tries-to-be-sexy episode, but the funniest Jammer review I have read so far.

    < < One final note: I thought the big "reveal" that it was the women who really ran the show despite all appearances to the contrary was pretty weak and a lame attempt to take the edge off any anticipated complaints about the episode's (alleged) sexism. > >

    I did not buy the story tweak about suddenly men being the slaves and women being the owners/handlers.
    Why? Because we see female Orions being held in cages and sold at auctions (in this very series, earlier episode). Not just sold to male Orions but to alien customers. So how are women supposed to rule the show if they get handed out to whoever is willing to pay the price and takes them to whereever. I don't see how this is either fine for them nor how they could possibly dominate, scattered across the known universe and subdued in alien cultures. It's a plain slave fate, and nothing can be altered storywise to that later without looking ridiculous.

    @ Cetric

    Very simply... we see how they affected the crew of the Enterprise, it's clear their tactic. The sell them off, and they bring the syndicate ships, more slaves, goods, etc.

    This Trip/T'Pol thing is horrendous. A huge miscalculation by the writers.

    @Skemby Ummm, that was a pretty weak attempt at pretending like there is no sexism is because men get treated the same way! No they don't, and yes the garbage T'Pol/Jolene Blalock had to go through was sexist trash.

    @Jez You attack "lefties" and people's opinions and then complain that people should "relax." Pot, kettle, black,

    Seriously no one's gonna talk about how the episode was saved by the Trip Tucker tribute to Han Solo moment?

    Yes, the episode is a mess. It deals in sexist tropes and its “empowering” reveal makes little sense in regard to t previous appearance of the Orions in an earlier episode. For a final five episode installment, shockingly poor.

    But like DS9’s Profit and Lace, it isn’t nearly the worst Trek outing. Despite its many failings, it still has a light, comedic bent that makes it less painful. Some of the banter is fun and it was a treat hearing about the Gorn. But compared to TNG’s deeply problematic forays to planets of both Native Americans and Africans or Voyager’s butchering of both evolution and warp drive that sees Janeway and Tom mating as lizards, this was at least semi-watchable. Not great. Not good. But not mindnumblingly boring or canon-rending.

    What's with all the idiots insisting this is somehow a good episode and not a big pile of crap? Why does this always happen when Jammer (rightly) gives a bad review? Was this review linked to on a men's rights forum or something?

    Zane 314 posts for me. I thought this episode was a lot of fun--I'd give it 3 stars. The episodes with T'Pol half undressed for no good reason--those are the ones I'd like burned.

    @Gail NYC, I completely agree. "Bound" takes us back to the deepest roots of Star Trek - the pilot "Cage" - in which Captain Pike muses wistfully about leaving Star Fleet to take up life as an Orion trader.

    https://youtu.be/Apuye0JcWqM

    @kapages, yes, I wrote about @Jammer's obvious bias against episodes like this - going all the way back to "Mudd's Women" - in my review of that episode.

    I can't believe we get more wisdom on this topic from Lady Ga Ga.

    https://youtu.be/25ilfAuHvlY

    Just dance!!!

    Just finally finished a belated watchthrough of Enterprise. This one was a painfully dumb experience. I get that it's something of a homage to Mudd's Women, but that was possibly the worst example of the rife sexism in TOS, and this didn't have the charm and charisma of Mudd to carry it through. At least it was actual pheremones at work instead of the girls just being hot like in the original, making Kirk's crew the most undisciplined and unproffessional crew in space (and no ending speech about the two types of women, supermodels and domestic types).

    I expected Archer to show a bit more discomfort when the Orion guy explicitly mentions buying them. Also for a little more caution considering the last time he took in a sex slave in Season 3, they turned out to be a saboteur, but Enterprise continues to let anyone just wander into the engine room. I was ready to award some point when they stuffed them into decon1 when the truth came out, but rescinded rhem when the immediatlely left 2 men to guard them. I held out faint hope for a subversion of the obvious escape by one of the guards saying something like "I don't think my husband back home would approve". Was also expecting T'pol to just shoot the women when they entered the bridge instead of standing there frowning until Trip comes in to shoot everyone else. Finally, not buying the paper thin excuse they try to trot out about the women really being in charge. That bit of tell contradicts a lot of show.

    Looking back at the time capsule of these comments, it's a surprising pit of not even trying to hide it blatant misogyny.

    Oh god, the cringe. That it’s a ‘homage’ to TOS made sense, because it reminded me so much of one of those episodes where Kirk was a good captain until a pretty woman showed up, and all logic went out the window.

    There was something funny about how ridiculous it was, though. That exercise scene had me dying. “Oh, yeah, these WOMEN! They’re so HOT, I’m full of TESTOSTERONE! I need to work it out with my MANLY STRENGTH!!! Pumping iron with my MAN MUSCLES!”

    It’s weird that that was the most I think I’ve seen Travis act all season. THIS is when you break out your acting muscles? Probably because they finally had him doing something, poor guy.

    Haven't been here in a while and thought I'd refresh my memory on what Jammer thought of this episode -though I shouldn't have bothered. He was woke before woke was cool.

    Hey cupcakes, I just got done taking selfies inside an active volcano for kicks, and I was flying over the ocean on my way home (which I do ALL the time) and I figured I'd watch ENT's "Bound" to reinforce my priors that women only have sex for financial gain or to dominate a weak beta man, a stance that my peers regularly shower me in accolades for. Clearly, only a naive child could ever disagree! I tell you what, I've been pert-near to space and on the bottom of the sea and I never saw no feminists anywhere; and believe me, I asked! I went up to every man I could find and asked them if they believe women should have equal rights, standing and opportunity and they all said no. Did I mention I get strange tail all over the world on a regular basis? Does that trigger you? Ha ha ha! Nothing is sexist, and if it is, just lighten up, you liberal weenie! I am very smart!

    /sarcasm

    Sorry, couldn't resist making a little tribute to #1 stud Greg upthread. As someone who loves TOS and has mastered the art of turning off my brain, this episode is trash. Nice try, but you're not running anyone's society if you're being sold off in cages.

    @Sen-Sors
    This is the "I like to see slave women in green body paint but I don't want to feel bad about it"episode. It is more like a deep dive into the psyche of some pervy men. That Jammer is called woke here in the comments is pretty hilarious. :D

    I'll take "He was woke before woke was cool" as a compliment.

    It's tragic, how good things tend to get completely butchered the moment they become "cool", isn't it?

    I don't think it was a complement
    "thought I'd refresh my memory on what Jammer thought of this episode -though I shouldn't have bothered. He was woke before woke was cool. "

    "It's tragic, how good things tend to get completely butchered the moment they become "cool", isn't it?"
    If you by cool mean so popular that they become financially beneficial then I wholeheartedly agree.

    Trek comedies are often weak because comedy wasn't in the wheelhouse of the writers, directors and certain actors. They fail more often then they succeed at being funny, but hey, at least the showrunners idn't limit themselves and sometimes itt actually worked.

    The concept behind the Orions is what it is: you can choose to either be offended by them or laugh at how silly it all is. Yes, it's a dumb puerile fantasy straight out of a porno, so what do you do with it? There's nothing really to analyze.

    I think the real disconnect here is that mid-period Trek is usually supposed to be taken seriously and these goofy sitcom-like episodes are jarring. Case in point: the reaction to "Precious Cargo" or Ferengi episodes.

    In TOS, it's way easier to accept the premise and laugh at this stuff because that show already has campy elements. (I'd argue that's part of that show's appeal.)

    Anyways, I found this episode somewhat amusing yet dumb in its slavish homage to the TOS ethos (including the unintentional camp). It passed the time, then I went about my day and never gave it another thought.

    Obviously David didn't mean it as a compliment, but that doesn't change my point: Saying that a review from 2008 is "woke" *is* a compliment, regardless of the intentions of the person who said it.

    I mean, if we try to take it as a negative statement, how would it read? "Jammer is not a chauvinist and he is against objectifying women as sex objects. Wow, what a scumbag"?

    "If you by cool mean so popular that they become financially beneficial then I wholeheartedly agree."

    Not exactly what I had in mind, though I guess you could say that "do what society expects of you or you'll be fired/cancelled/terrorized/abused" can be seen as "financially beneficial". ;-)

    Dave makes some good points. I never gave it that much thought but yeah,
    non-comedy writers trying to make comedy with non-comedy actors. What could go wrong...

    @Omicron
    "Not exactly what I had in mind,"
    I know. I tried to steer you away from culture war stuff. :)

    Just when I was thinking oh well at least they've dropped the sleazy sexploitation.....Go team enterprise, go!

    Listen, this episode was still better than nearly all of seasons one and two. Out of 52 episodes produced in seasons one and two of Enterprise, I counted a total of TWELVE I thought were good enough to have been made. Not good, mind you, or great, mind you, or life-changing, as Star Trek at its best can be, mind you. Merely good enough to have been made. That's twelve out of fifty-two, or roughly 23%. This one passes the "good enough to have been made test," albeit barely. It at least adds interesting and worthwhile elements to Star Trek lore about the Orions.

    There are a lot of interesting stories that could have been told with a story of sexual pheromones overwhelming the male crew if the writers had been willing to subvert expectations a little more, and if they'd been more willing to allow the female cast members to step up and be the heroes while the men were reduced to helplessness in the background . . . and if, you know, there'd been more female cast members to begin with than just Hoshi & T'Pol! But there are lots of ways this premise could have been used for inciteful (and insightful) commentary on contemporary gender issues, in the best tradition of Star Trek, if the writers had been brave enough. And they could have done it while still giving the network the titillation it wanted. That little reveal at the end that the men are actually the slaves doesn't cut it, it's mostly played for laughs.

    Maybe I'm more tolerant of a bad episode that's Trying Something (an homage to certain style of TOS episode with a subversive ending) when it's not a bad episode that isn't Trying Something--an episode that's just plain bad--and when it comes in the middle of a string of rather good episodes in a very strong season (only three episodes in season four so far that don't pass the "good enough to be made" test: Stormfront I & II, and Daedalus).

    Even ignoring the puerile objectification of the Orion women - and I thought this show had grown out of this kind of plot or set-piece when it ditched the gratuitous decon chamber gel rubbing scenes - this episode is a snoozefest. Its script is terribly written, dialogue outside of the Trip and T'Pol interactions is laughably bad, and on top of that, it's mostly a repeat of "Raijin" from last season.

    The "Trip transfers to Columbia" subplot needed to be a lot longer than three episodes in order to be believable, as well. If I were Captain Hernandez, I'd have declined his transfer request straight off - it's unreasonable to expect an organisation like Starfleet to bow to every whim of its officers, especially if it would require a reorganisation of key personnel on two ships. Kelby is right to be aggrieved!

    I'd like to see Kelby end up on the Columbia. It's not like things could go back to normal with Trip after a fully fledged fist fight.

    This just continues the long tradition of science fiction television trying to criticize sexism and coming off even more sexist. I can't think of a more sexist trope than women being dangerous manipulators with their sexuality. It's why thousands of them are still forced by law in some countries to cover themselves from head to toe, or even ghastlier customs that don't need describing here.

    Too bad they didnt have any openly gay dudes on here, they could have saved the day. Assuming all the men on the ship will be seduced by women was pretty bad even for 2005.

    This episode was utter garbage.

    @Chris Nash

    I know you left the comment over a year ago, I'm just seeing it now. "The Trip transfers to Columbia subplot needed to be a lot longer to be believable"

    Agreed. I'm sure the writers do as well. For all we know their intention was to make it longer. Then they learned their show was being cancelled, and had to get him back on board so they could wrap up the series.

    Must diverge from noble Jammer here. "Bound" even if hardly a trailblazing masterpiece, was not a bad show and its content was actually a welcome change from the drop-of-the-hat brutality and torture seen in: 1) the later Xindi episodes, 2) Storm Front pts I & II, and 3) the Augments trilogy. In those outings, Archer, Hoshi, Trip, Phlox, Phlox's friend Dr. Lucas and others are grievously abused like so many ragdolls. I will take Orion females dancing lasciviously with exposed navels over the Symbalene blood burn execution scene any day.

    The male antagonist in "Bound" with the very Sumerian sounding name Harrad-sar (arad/ardu+ sar, translates loosely as "servant who writes") was played by William Lucking (who passed away about a year ago). He was very effective, as were the Orion women, who came across as serious adversaries of the fabled succubus variety. In the final bridge scene, they become as dangerous as Dracula's wives.

    * I noted that the planet containing the magnesite deposits was graphically drawn using a map of the eastern Aegean as a guide. The islands of Lesbos and Chios are clearly visible in the battle scenes shown late in the episode.

    Knowing how absurdly laughable and adolescent star trek sexuality is, this episode wasn't surprising, bad bad bad, but I will give it 3 stars cause it wasn't boring, which is my main factor, but:

    1. I don't know why they think all these green gorn reptilian looking females are "attractive". Those pheromones must really put one out of their mind!

    2. Why do these alien biochemicals always work on humans? Are the physiologies that similar? I mean we don't get attracted to non-human animals just because they release mating scents and pheromone signals. Yeah yeah they are humanoid blah blah but please.

    3. The twist at the end actually did fool me, but how many of these cliche themed episodes do we need?

    Hilarious retro Trek!
    Super fun, I howled. Horny Archer is funny lol.
    Ignore the haters, turn off your brain and have a laff!

    Bit of a dick move by Trip, coming back and stealing poor Kelby's job out from under him just because he feels like it. Grounds for unfair dismissal, surely? 🤔

    I’m watching Enterprise for the first time in 2023. Me and my girlfriend made so many comments during this episode. I liked the look of the Three Orions. I love Lower Decks so I was happy to see them. They definitely looked cool. Their hair, makeup and outfits were beautiful!
    We both kept yelling at the TV things like “Please assign some women to guard them!” “Stun them!” (When they were on the bridge)
    That scene where Archer wanted to blow up that random ship was odd. He would have felt so bad later if he had done that!
    The freaky camera angles when Archer was all out of it, were perfect. Nice choice.
    The story was not the best, but still entertaining. Why did all the women get headaches?

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